There was a good bit on **** about how there can't be any more good buddy cop movies because there's no more crazy pairings, and all the recent ones that have been any good (Hot Fuzz, The Heat) are meta-commentaries on buddy cop films than actual buddy cop movies. And I guess I agree with that...

I'm ESPECIALLY thinking of this right now because Chip put the idea in my head of a Mark Ruffalo/Robert Downey Jr buddy cop movie when we were talking about Iron Man 3, and I wanna see that enough that I'm willing to explore how that sort of story might work (plus, if I can crack it in general, well, that gives me an advantage over everyone else).

The other big issue (besides crazy pairings) that's killing buddy cop comedies and police movies in general is, well, once you know who the bad guy is, the movie's not rewatchable... so that's another hurdle that the movie format has to overcome now. So I guess the actual guilty party isn't as important, it's not putting the clues together, it's HOW they do it, the JOURNEY becomes more important.

Well, I think the Buddy Cop Genre is only going to thrive based on the two cops in particular. That's what made the Lethal Weapon series as good as it was. It was really never about the Villain. On the flipside, if you have a weak pair of Cops, then the Villain becomes paramount and as you said, it's one and done because no one would really want to come back for the Cops if the Villain was the star.

As for Ruffalo / Downey, that would actually be something fun to write. I may take a crack at it just for personal reasons and if I came up with a story that I liked, I would definitely have an eye on drawing a comic of it.

You know, I really think that's where the next Iron Man would go, I mean,outside of why not it would make a killing, it's two brilliant scientists yucking it up while tracking down a supervillian. Give it to Shane Black, throw in an obscure Marvel villain and you're gold. And it'd really be interesting counter-intuitively because their personalities are rather similar instead of diametrically opposite.

I feel like Joe Pesci might be an interesting person to throw into the mix as well, actually (because I just glanced at "My Cousin Vinnie" on my shelf, NOT Lethal Weapon).

And there's always a BIG name, you know? Who's the big name, who's this movie's Robert Redford or Michael Douglas?

Oh my god, I just got this image of Tony Stark trying to help Banner pick up chicks, "anyone you like out there, anyone turning you, uh, green down there?" "This isn't why we're here, this isn't what we're supposed to be doing." "This is all I've ever wanted to do. Hello. Let's go try our luck at the bar, you thirsty? I think this place has a minimum." "No, I can't drink. I don't think you can, either." "I'm not going to drink it, I'm just going to hold it and look sophisticated. Which I would anyway."

You know, when I think of the "tracer" bit, the first one my brain goes to is Chris Rock's bit about "you think Fat Albert had a tracer? No, Bill Cosby did the whole thing himself with a roller-- and it was EXCELLENT!"